This invention relates generally to social networking, and in particular to providing a profile page for a user of a social networking system that includes a short biographical summary
Social networking systems have become prevalent in recent years because they provide a useful environment in which users can connect to and communicate with other users. A variety of different types of social networking systems exist that provide mechanisms allowing users to interact within their social networks.
One common characteristic of social networking systems is providing a user profile page where the user can provide biographical and other information such as relationship status, current place of residence, hometown, educational experiences, and work experiences. Typically the information is organized into sections pertaining to the different types of information and few limits are placed on how much biographical information the user may add.
As a result, a viewer of the profile page may need to view several different areas within the profile page to get the basic biographical facts about the user. Also, the information about a user that a viewer might find relevant may vary during different time frames, but existing social networking systems provide the information in a static presentation state. In addition, because the user decides what to include in the profile, items in the profile may be presented with a prominence, the user's profile page can reflect certain biases of the user.
A similar difficulty exists with photographs within a user's profile. Typically the photographs are presented in albums as determined by the user, and the albums are presented in reverse chronological order.